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Fatigue Threatens Air Safety, NTSB Says

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 April 2007, 06:00 CDT

By Alan Levin

WASHINGTON -- Sleep-deprived air traffic controllers played a role in at least four near-fatal incidents on the nation's runways, and the controller on duty in the worst U.S. crash in five years got only two hours of sleep, federal accident investigators said Tuesday.

"Fatigue decreases aviation safety," the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a letter urging reform in air traffic scheduling and training.

The NTSB said the problem of tired controllers is exacerbated by scheduling two eight-hour shifts within 24 hours, a common practice that gives controllers little chance to get normal sleep.

The safety board said the Federal Aviation Administration, which employs controllers and regulates aviation, does "not adequately consider the potential impact of work scheduling on fatigue and performance." It also found that controllers interviewed after incidents often admitted that they didn't make it a priority to get enough sleep.

The FAA will study the recommendations, agency spokeswoman Laura Brown said. The FAA requires at least eight hours between shifts, and "we expect controllers to be responsible and make sure they are adequately rested," Brown said. Schedules are negotiated with the controllers' union, so changes would require approval from employees, she said.

National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesman Doug Church said the union welcomes the NTSB report. "This is the number one problem in the controller ranks," Church said. "There are not enough of us. The FAA is stretching their controller resources too thin."

Relations between the FAA and the union soured following a bitter fight over changes in work rules and a contract that reduced controller compensation.

The controller on duty shortly before dawn on Aug. 27 when Comair Flight 5191 crashed in Lexington, Ky., told investigators he did not see the jet taxi to a closed runway because he turned away to perform paperwork. The controller said he had slept two hours the previous afternoon before reporting to work at 11:30 p.m. for his second eight-hour shift that day.

The NTSB has not yet established the cause of the crash. But the agency said four other completed investigations highlighted the problems that tired controllers can create. Among them:

*The controller who ordered a passenger jet to take off directly into the path of another jet at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport last year told investigators he had slept only four hours before reporting to work at 6:30 a.m. He said he was "not as sharp as (he) could have been," the NTSB reported.

*A controller who cleared a cargo jet for takeoff on a closed runway in Denver in 2001 told investigators she had gotten 60 to 90 minutes of sleep before working an overnight shift. She told investigators she was "probably tired, not alert enough." (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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